Let Go
by jakelsx
Summary: .troyella. She wanted to let go, just for a second.


**Let Go**

A disorder?

Maybe.

Was there something wrong?

Maybe.

Was there something right?

No.

"Tell me what's fucking wrong, then!" she screamed. Troy held her waist and kept her under control.

"Mrs. Bolton, I have to ask you to calm down," the doctor demanded. "Sit down and calm down." Troy pulled down on Gabriella's hand from the chair. She fell wordlessly next to him. "Your daughter's condition was very… delicate."

"We know," she insisted.

"I'm sure you do but that wasn't the half of it. It turns out that the cells have doubled in the last week alone and the fever temperatures have increased greatly," the doctor said, keeping a stone cold face.

"What's the point?" Troy asked. "What happened to Katie?"

"It turned out she had gained another kind of cancer to pile on to what she already had. AIDS, as you know, makes the body more vulnerable to these kinds of things. We tried to get her in to surgery as soon as possible to remove the tumor that caused the second cancer… which was why we called you guys in so late. It was a high-risk operation but Katie's only chance." He paused, letting Troy and Gabriella take it in. "We went on with the operation. It went well… until we got halfway."

It was silent for a little bit, except for Gabriella's quiet sniffs every so often.

"She woke up. She died on the operating table."

Silence.

Gabriella fell apart. Her baby.

Her baby girl was dead.

She wailed and screamed. Troy asked the doctor to leave the room.

He tried to calm her down and have her listen to his voice. He first spoke softly into her ear but her screams would only increase. "Gabriella!" he finally shouted. She fell against his chest, out of breath. He wrapped his arms around her.

He didn't even get to teach her how to play basketball. He didn't even get to threaten her first boyfriend. He didn't even get to help her pick out a prom dress.

She was six years old. She didn't even get to live life. "It's not fair," Gabriella finally whispered into his shirt.

His eyes were getting watery. His heart had already sunk to his stomach.

"You'll just have to sign these forms here," the doctor said when he entered the room. "And then you can arrange a funeral for her. I'm sorry."

He put the papers on a desk in front of them and left the room again. Troy grabbed a pen and started to signature every dotted line. "Gabriella, they need a mother's signature too," he said, his voice stern.

Gabriella wearily looked at the papers. "'Katie Lorraine Bolton, deceased August 11, 2020, 22: 31 PM…'" she read. "These papers just say she's dead?"

Troy looked at his wife of seven years. "Yeah," he said quietly.

Gabriella let out a cold laugh. "I _know_ she's dead. She's fucking dead now, Troy. Troy, can you hear me? She's dead."

"I know hun."

"I know too."

"Just sign the papers, Gabi. Then we can go home."

"Why do we need to sign papers to say that she _died_?"

"It's a crazy world."

"Yeah, must be to take away our baby."

Troy paused, studying her face. She was beautiful even with the dull glint of the hospital office. Her deep brown eyes were crusted with something deeper: pain, sorrow… disbelief. Her hair fell messily around her face, her hands were folded in her lap, and she stared at the bleak white wall. "Gabriella," he said again, louder.

"I can hear you."

"Gabriella, sign the papers."

"How crazy do you think I am? Sign the fucking papers. I'm not going to do that. You need me to sign something that says our daughter is dead? _Our_ daughter? Don't you care, Troy? Why are you signing those? Don't you care about our baby? _Our_ baby? She was half of me and half of you. She's dead Troy; don't you care?"

"Of course," he said. What was she saying?

"Then why are you signing those fucking papers?" There was a short pause.

"I…I want to go home, right now, okay?" he said sticking the pen in front of her face. "Ju- jus-jus- just sign it." His hand was shaking. "I-I care just as much as you, Gabriella. I loved her just much as you. I-I-I just want to go home right now."

She looked up at his perfect blue eyes. They were surrounded by tints of red. Tears were streaming down his face.

Then, suddenly, she forgot about death. She forgot about sadness. All she saw was that the man that she loved was hurting. Did she make him hurt? All she could do was use her thumb to softly wipe away the tears.

He clenched his eyes shut.

All she could do was lean up to him and place a tender kiss to his jaw.

All she could do was let go, forget for a second. "I'm sorry," she said into his ear. She softly caressed the side of his face and placed another kiss to his chin. "I'm sorry."

She took the pen and signed her name.

-----

The wall was so empty. The wallpaper was half torn down, sure but it was rid of the pictures.

The pictures of family, friends…herself.

Her knees were pulled up against her chest. She was also hugging a lonely, small teddy bear.

It was Katie's favorite. She promptly named it Twinkie after the treat she was eating at the time.

It was Gabriella's favorite. Troy had bought it for her on her eighteenth birthday. On the foot, it was properly stitched, "We're Breaking Free".

She stared at the bleak wall. Half of it was white, empty. The other half was a light pink color since Katie had insisted that princesses' favorite color was pink.

"Kate, baby, where are you?" Gabriella whispered voice hoarse.

Troy held a hot cup of black coffee all three days since her death. The funeral was the day before. No one said anything. Only twenty to twenty five people came.

He never drank from his cup of coffee.

He just held it.

He, like Gabriella, had gotten little or no sleep since her death.

"Gabriella?" he whispered, peaking into the dark room. She had been there for hours. Gabriella kept her gaze at the wall. "Hun?"

He slowly walked forward and sat down with her. She looked down at the top of "Twinkie"s head. He touched her hand but she just pulled away. "Gabriella, it's almost midnight. Do you want something to eat?" he asked.

She remained silent.

He stared at her for a few more seconds but then pulled away reluctantly. He went to go get his car keys.

When he got back into the room, he picked up Gabriella bridal style and started carrying her away. "Wh-Wha- What are doing?" she said. She wrapped her arms around Troy's neck tightly. They were thirty one now; they weren't the most energetic people on the block.

"I've got you," he whispered. He opened the door and headed out to the car.

"Outside?" she asked in a hushed voice. "I'm in sweats."

"So am I."

"My hair's messy." She wasn't wearing any make-up either but she hardly wore it anyway.

"My hair's messy too." She rolled her eyes.

He placed her in the car and they drove to a local Denny's. They got a late dinner (or an early breakfast) and then he took the wheel again.

"Thanks, Troy," she sighed, looking at him. "I really needed that."

"So did I. I didn't know a guy could live this long without food."

She giggled. He smiled.

As they went on, the stars got brighter and brighter. Troy's eyes fought to stay open as he drove down a familiar path.

They'd never been the whole, go out to a super expensive restaurant type. In fact, in high school, they'd like to just hang out by the swings in the park. She'd be out of her room and away from her books and he'd be away from his team and his dad. They forgot about everything there. Sometimes, they'd stay for a couple of minutes, exchange how their day went and then head out for some food and other times they'd stay the entire day.

"Troy, where are we going?" Gabriella asked. She peered out the window, taking a look at the bright stars outside.

"You'll see," he said and smiled.

He pulled up in the empty parking lot. The streetlights were the only thing making sure he wasn't going to crash. As he got out he grabbed a couple of blankets from the back of the car. "Come on," he said, gesturing to the tall willow tree that stood watch over the entire park. Gabriella stared at him in shock.

"Here?" she asked. "Now?" He nodded.

He made his way over to the tree. He set a blanket down by a stone bench next to the tree and sat down, his back to the bench. "Come on, Gabi," he whispered.

She looked at him questioningly. "Troy, this is ridiculous."

She didn't know why but she walked over to him anyway. She sat in between his legs, resting her back against his chest. He then put the other blanket over them gracefully, like a feather coming done from the sky. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

She thought about it.

Then she realized that she hadn't thought about death for the past hour and a half. There was no sorrow, no depression, no sadness in her mind. All she thought about was her Troy making everything alright.

"I'm fine," she replied.

She rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes.

"Goodnight, Gabriella," he whispered so quietly that she thought she imagined it. She could feel his breath on her face and his arms around her waist under the blanket. "Goodnight, Katie."

She wanted to let go, just for a second.

_It's so amazing here_

_Cus' there's beauty in the breakdown_

_- Let Go by Frou Frou, covered by Boys Like Girls_

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**_AN:// _needed to get that out of my system. I just love one-shots, though, don't you?**


End file.
